Energy Business Rewind: Solar ETF SPLITS, Shell Drills The ARCTIC

Market Vectors Solar ETF (NYSE:KWT) shares gain Friday, ahead of its 1-for-15 reverse split that becomes effective on Monday. The stock has lost some 75 percent of its value over the past year, but at least the price of the new shares will jump. Guggenheim Solar ETF (NYSE:TAN) was in similar straits earlier this year, when it went for a 1-for-10 split.

BP’s (NYSE:BP) talks with Gazprom (OGZPY.PK) regarding a possible pipeline that would provide the United Kingdom with Russian gas, have hit the wall after BP’s Russian oil partners refused to allow the talks. Also this week, BP is said to have been denied when it asked for a waiver to allow discussions on the possibility of joining the Nord Stream project.

Royal Dutch Shell’s (RDS.A) vital oil spill test this week ends years of sparring with U.S. regulators, and sets the firm at the brink of drilling in Arctic seas off Alaska, in what might be one of the world’s most scrutinized projects. The Chukchi and Beaufort seas by themselves could contain between 25 and 27 billion barrels of oil, which is at least 80 percent of as much as the entire proved reserves of the U.S.